Peshawar Zalmi’s owner and CEO Javed Afridi hits back at the critics who have been at him for his bio-secure bubble breach when he met captain Wahab Riaz and head coach Darren Sammy. “There hasn’t been a single positive case in the Peshawar Zalmi’s camp so it is absurd to blame me or my team for the COVID-19 spread.” He said this while talking to The Correspondent.
When asked about his meeting with Wahab Riaz and Darren Sammy, the owner of Peshawar Zalmi, Javed Afridi categorically admitted his mistake and said, “I didn’t get a chance to meet Sammy after his arrival in Pakistan so we had to discuss that how we are approaching this season as a team. But I assure you all COVID-19 SOPs were followed during that meeting.”
“In the aftermath of this meeting, we did everything to make up for this mistake. All three of us submitted our negative test reports to PSL’s technical committee and they allowed both Sammy and Wahab to reintegrate with the team for their first game against Lahore Qalandars on February 21, Afridi added.
“Muhammad Hafeez who violated COVID-19 SOPs during Pakistan’s tour of England and clicked a picture with an old lady on the golf course. He was allowed to join the team by the England Cricket Board (ECB) after a few days quarantine, which is an international practice and negative test reports.”
On Lahore Qalandars’ CEO Atif Rana’s comments blaming Peshawar of the bubble breach, Javed said, “I don’t want to comment on individuals but my argument is that there hasn’t been a single positive case from my franchise, so it is kind of baseless to accuse me or my team to spread COVID-19.
Javed Afridi is still optimistic about restarting the PSL and said that we will sit with the PCB and all the franchises to find a window for the remaining matches. “We will try to get it done before August,” he said.
On the financial repercussions, Javed Afridi is of the view that since PSL is a joint venture of the PCB and PSL, so all the stakeholders will have to bear the losses. “Nothing has been decided yet but all the losses will be beared among the franchises according to the same formula how profits are distributed, he said.
On Thursday, the sixth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) was postponed abruptly due to rising COVID-19 cases among players and support staff. Shortly after the decision, the blame game started with all stakeholders trying to shift the responsibility on each other.
